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Madison Scott shoots the ball at the Washington Mystics vs. Los Angeles Sparks game on Aug. 17, 2025 at the CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C. Credit: Photo Courtesy of Madison Scott (Photo Courtesy of Madison Scott)<\/p>\nBy Sabreen Dawud
Special to the AFRO<\/p>\n
Madison Scott learned she had secured her very first spot on a girls basketball team while sitting in her fourth grade at Ardmore Elementary School in Prince George\u2019s County, Md.<\/p>\n
Now a Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player for the Washington Mystics, Scott remembers the moment well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe head coach got on the announcements and called out the names of the girls who made the basketball team for the whole school to hear. They were going through the names and I didn\u2019t hear my name. I\u2019m sitting there and I\u2019m sweating. Next thing you know, the last name was called \u2018Madison Scott.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Madison Scott shoots the ball at the Washington Mystics vs. Los Angeles Sparks game on Aug. 17, 2025 at the CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C. Credit: Photo Courtesy of Madison Scott (Photo Courtesy of Madison Scott)<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and the game of basketball have been inseparable,\u201d Scott said, thinking back to that moment in grade school.<\/p>\n
What began as playing basketball in neighborhoods from Montgomery to Prince George\u2019s County, turned into athleticism and a rich education that made the 2025 WNBA draft pick we know today. Being a native of the D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) area not only shaped her character, but it carved her path to securing a spot in the pros.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scott has seen many sides of the DMV area and says she has taken lessons taken from every county she has called home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom was in foster care, so I was with her in foster care. She was a resident of Silver Spring, Md.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there Scott, her mother, and her step-father ventured to Bowie, Md., during her time in elementary school. From the suburbs of Bowie, Scott transitioned to studying in the city of Washington, D.C., where she attended Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scott spent her high school years at Bishop McNamara high school in Forestville, Md., a school in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC). It was during her time there that her perspective on basketball shifted from a joyful expression of self to a career path worth pursuing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMcNamara was really the place for me,\u201d Scott said. \u201cMcNamara truly accepted me in all my facets. I didn\u2019t come in the same woman that I left. They helped develop me. They helped raise me. To this day, I\u2019m forever grateful for McNamara.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Madison Scott engages young athletes at the 2025 Madison Scott Basketball Foundation Youth Camp in Oxford, Miss. (Photo Courtesy of Madison Scott)<\/p>\n
Scott\u2019s love for the DMV made her choice to go to University of Mississippi all the more surprising. The city of Oxford, Miss., was far from home and would introduce an entirely different experience. For Scott, this was more of a reason why she felt called to pursue her collegiate career there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was important that I could be somewhere and not have to leave, not have to transfer. Somewhere where I can truly grow on and off the court. That was really big for me,\u201d she explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were on the come up. For me, that intrigued me. That made me excited. I didn\u2019t want to do what was popular. I didn\u2019t want to do what everybody expected me to do. I wanted to do what I felt like I was meant to do,\u201d said Scott. \u201cI wanted to be a part of something that was bigger than myself. Something that was going to take work. Something that was going to make me uncomfortable because I didn\u2019t want to be comfortable. That was Ole\u2019 Miss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ole\u2019 Miss offered her the growth that she truly wanted to see within herself. As she grew, so did the university\u2019s women\u2019s basketball program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During her time at University of Mississippi Scott gained a deeper understanding of what she wanted to do off the court as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I was also going to come into opportunities to branch out and to explore more things that Madison wanted to do as a person, not the ball player. Being there, that\u2019s where I learned that I really wanted to give back,\u201d Scott recalled.<\/p>\n
Her interest in community work and self exploration led Scott to becoming a fall 2023 initiate of the Xi Zeta Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. (SGRHO) at the University of Mississippi.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing for me with SGRHO was how inclusive they were. They didn\u2019t want to change me. They wanted me for me. That is something that I am forever, forever, forever grateful for,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself that still allowed me to be myself.\u201d<\/p>\n